


Call and Answer

by embroiderama



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Phobias, Trapped In Elevator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 13:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/868202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embroiderama/pseuds/embroiderama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean Winchester might not have a problem with being stuck alone in a dark elevator during a blackout, but Jensen Ackles is not Dean Winchester.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call and Answer

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know when I started this story, only that it was over a year ago, so YAY for finishing another old WIP. This is established relationship and "non-AU" but not set in any particular 'verse.

There was no light at all. No emergency lights in the ceiling or around the floor. No light seeping through the crack between the doors. Jensen sat where he'd fallen, his hands flat on the scratchy industrial carpeting, and tried to remind himself that the elevator wasn't going to fall. It wasn't going anywhere, and that was the problem.

Jensen had gone over to his lawyer's office after hours to sign some paperwork, and even on the way in he'd noticed that the building was empty, no security guard left at the desk. On his way back down, the lights went out and the elevator came to a halt with a shuddering jerk. Jensen landed on his ass with a thud and belatedly braced himself, his heart beating heavy in his ears as he waited to see if the elevator would fall or start up again or what.

But nothing happened; everything stayed still and quiet other than an alarm Jensen could hear faintly, sounding from somewhere inside the building. And there was no light, just Jensen in a box with six metal sides suspended somewhere in the middle of a high-rise. He flipped open his phone, and there was no service, but at least it was light, and he had almost a full charge. His heart racing, Jensen gingerly climbed to his feet. He pushed the door-open button but nothing happened, the button didn't even light up. No power.

He sank back down to the floor and just stared at his phone until the connection came back. One bar, then two bars. It was enough. 911 was busy. He hung up, dialed again, it was still busy. He hung up, closed his eyes, whispered a vague prayer of _please, please,_ dialed again, and it rang.

"911. Please state the nature of your emergency." The woman's voice was rushed, clipped.

"I'm stuck in an elevator at, um, the office building at the corner of, um, Fifth and Flower." Jensen cursed himself for not knowing his location. Dean Winchester would do a hell of a lot better."

"Are you injured, sir?"

"No. Just, the power's out and the elevator's stopped."

"Is anybody else with you in the elevator?"

"No, just me. The building was pretty empty." Jensen swallowed hard. "I'm alone."

"Okay sir, I've entered your report. Due to the number of calls we're currently receiving, it's going to be at least an hour, maybe two, until we can get you out of that elevator."

"I--seriously?"

"I'm sorry sir. This is a widespread blackout, and emergency services are being dispatched all over the place. Do you require any medical assistance?"

Jensen sighed. "No. I understand, thanks."

"We'll have somebody to you as soon as possible. Please call back if anything changes. Thank you."

"Th--" The line disconnected. "--anks." Jensen thumbed the button to hang up and dropped his head back against the wall. The phone's screen went dark, and Jensen was lost in blackness again. He could feel it pressing in around him, and it was like pressure all around his ribs, making it hard to breathe. Jensen bounced his head off the wall to distract himself from his panic.

"Don't be an idiot," Jensen said to himself, trying to push away the silence. His voice reverberated off the walls, though, reminding him of just how little space he had. He was a grown man, not some little kid afraid of the dark. And he wasn't claustrophobic…exactly. He'd been stuck in a couple of elevators before, but it had always been with the lights on and other people. He wasn't like one of the dads in the tour group when he and his parents went to look at UT, telling them all they were going to die when the elevator got stuck for a couple minutes. Jensen wasn't like that.

But there was no light and no other people, and without being able to see the walls around him it was a little bit hard to remember that they really couldn't get any closer, that there really was plenty of air, plenty of room up above his head. Jensen wished he had his iPod or something to distract himself with music, but that was all back in the car. Even his Blackberry was off being repaired, so he was using his old phone, a piece of crap that couldn't even check e-mail without freezing up.

Jensen breathed, felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs by the oppressive darkness around, and thought about calling 911 back and telling him that he was having a medical emergency and needed out RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. But maybe there was some pregnant lady trapped in an elevator at a hospital or some old guy whose oxygen wasn't working, and it wouldn't be right, making himself come first. Wouldn't be the right thing to do.

Jensen's phone rang, startling him with the sound and the burst of light in the darkness. Jeff. Jensen hit the button to answer and held the phone up to his face. "Hey."

"Hey, I just wanted to check and make sure you're okay. But you don't sound too good, what's going on?" Jeff's voice was quiet, concerned, and Jensen closed his eyes to let it fill his head.

"Um, I'm not hurt or anything. Just…stuck."

"In traffic? I heard things were backing up with the traffic lights out."

"No. I'm, uh, stuck in the elevator at my lawyer's office. I called 911, and they said it would be an hour or more. I could be here all fucking night for all I know."

"Shit, babe. You sure you're not hurt?"

"I'm fine. Might've bruised my ass a little, nothing fatal."

"Anybody else hurt?"

"It's just me. Just me here in the dark."

"Correction, just you and me. You have a charge on that phone?"

Jensen felt something in his chest start to uncoil. "Yeah, I charged it up on the drive over."

"Good." Jeff was quiet for a moment, but Jensen could hear his breathing, the sounds of him moving around.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yeah, we're good. The power blinked here but it's back on now. I guess we're far enough out, everything's fine."

"Good." Jensen rearranged his legs and shifted his shoulders against the feeling of the walls around him. "I wish I could get the fuck out of this box."

"Me too. But, you know, we're both so fucking busy, never get enough time to talk. What's going on with you?"

"I'm stuck in an elevator," Jensen snapped. He took a deep breath and shook his head. "Sorry. I just--I can't think about anything other than being trapped in here. And it's, it's really dark."

"Okay." Jeff's voice felt calming, like a hand on his back, like Jeff's body fitted up against his. "Okay. You know, I've been thinking about our vacation. You know, in April?"

"Yeah."

"I know we were talking about going to Hawaii, but you've got to be as tired of flying as I am. I was thinking about this beach town in Mexico I went to a few years back. We could drive, it's just a few hours from LA. The beach is clean and there's nobody there. You lay on the sand and you could convince yourself you washed up from some kind of shipwreck."

Jensen imagined the sun shining on the water, blue and sparkling, and Jeff with his skin golden tan, his hands smoothing sunscreen on Jensen's back.

"We could get up in the morning when it's cool and fish in the surf and then go back and sleep through the heat, sleep with the sun shining in soft through the curtains, you know?"

"Yeah," Jensen sighed, leaning back more heavily against the wall of the elevator.

"Then we can go into the little town, get some enchiladas. They're to die for, babe. We can go back to the house and drink some beers on the beach, swim in the ink black ocean. Swim naked, held up by the water, become part of the waves. Then go inside and fuck and sleep and start the whole thing over again."

"That sounds pretty damn good." Jeff was quiet for a minute, only the sound of movement coming across the phone, some kind of shuffling. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'll just--give me one sec. Think about the beach."

"Okay." Jensen tried. He closed his eyes and thought about the open expanse of the sky and water and sand around him, but he could still feel the metal walls of the elevator pressing in around him. He shifted his legs, jerking as his feet bumped against the elevator doors. "Fuck."

"You're okay, Jen. Sorry about that."

"Not your fault I'm being a pussy about sitting on the floor for a couple hours."

"You just want out, nobody's going to fault you for that." Jeff was being so reasonable and so kind, and Jensen thought for a moment that it might be better if Jeff would channel John Winchester and tell him to buck up, to stop acting like a baby. Maybe then Jensen could find the Dean Winchester inside himself.

But even Dean Winchester was afraid sometimes, and Dean Winchester was always surrounded by crew members with lights and camera, even in the dark. And Jensen was just a guy who'd chosen a profession that, by definition, rarely involved being alone in the dark.

Jeff kept talking, stories about the dogs and the most recent set he'd been working on, and every time Jensen started to slip from freaked-out-but-managing into totally-not-managing Jeff would draw him back to the conversation, make him respond. There was no light and no space but Jeff's voice gave him enough air to keep breathing. When Jeff went quiet for a minute, Jensen felt himself start dissolving into the darkness again when Jeff came back on the line.

"I'm sorry about that, Jensen. Hey, you're okay."

Jensen wasn't so sure about that.

"Do you remember what floor the elevator was on when it stopped?"

Jensen didn't know what it mattered but yeah, he'd been watching the numbers tuck by when the whole thing went dark. "The eleventh floor. Not my lucky number, huh?"

"Maybe not."

Jensen listened to Jeff, and it sounded like he was working out. That, at least, was a good mental image, and if he hadn't been so wound up and scared he thought he could've gotten off on the rhythm of Jeff's breathing, the image of him pounding the treadmill with his feet. When the sound of a knock came from the other side of the elevator door, Jensen startled, scrambling back with his heart pounding in his throat.

"Ssh, hey," Jeff said. "I guess I got the right door."

Jensen was distracted and worn out from nerves, and it took him a long moment to make sense of what Jeff had said. "Wait, you're _here_?"

"Yep." Jensen could hear the smile in Jeff's voice, and the knot of tension in his chest relaxed so quickly that his head spun.

"Oh," Jensen said weakly, leaning against the door again. "Hi."

"Hi. How're you holding up in there?"

With his head against the door, Jensen could hear Jeff's voice clear through the phone as well as muffled through the elevator door. "Better. Now."

"I'm glad to hear that. But look, I've got an idea. I can't get you out of there no matter how much I wish I could, but usually the doors have a little give. Hold on a minute and let me try something. I'm putting the phone down, okay?"

"Yeah, okay." Jensen listened to sounds of movement on the other side of the doors, and when Jeff tapped again it sounded closer.

"Hey, Jen? See if you can pull the doors open from your side, just a few inches."

Jensen put his fingers to the seam between the doors, then hesitated. "It's not going to make the elevator move or anything, is it?"

"No way. You're stuck in place for better or worse."

"Yeah, okay," Jensen muttered more to himself than Jeff. He pressed his palms to the cool metal of the doors and tugged them apart enough to get his fingers around the edges then pushed the doors apart until he could see Jeff's face just inches away. The floor on Jeff's side was about three feet above the floor of the elevator, but it was close enough. Definitely close enough. "Hey."

Jeff shoved something into the gap. "Guide it down to the floor on your side."

It was a thick phone book, and when Jensen had it in place the doors were held open with a three-inch gap that let in light and air and Jeff's voice, live and in person. There wasn't a lot of light, but the two battery-operated lanterns Jeff kept around for camping created more than enough light for Jensen to see Jeff's face and to see that the space around him wasn't as small as it had felt in the dark. A second phone book held open the doors on Jeff's side, and with Jensen standing and Jeff sitting they were face to face, almost.

"You're amazing, you know that?" Jensen thought about Jeff finding the lanterns, jumping in his truck and driving no doubt faster than he should have, only to have to climb all those stairs. It said _love_ more than any kind of tangible gift, and if pressed Jensen would blame the stinging in his eyes on the sudden light after being in the dark for nearly an hour. "I never thought the man of my dreams would come to rescue me with Coleman lanterns and phone books."

Jeff smiled, his dimples standing out in the odd shadows cast by the lanterns. "To be fair, I found the phone books here. Somebody left a stack of them by the recycling bin."

"Oh, okay, then I'll have to thank them, whoever they are." Jensen wanted to reach through the doors and touch Jeff's face but it felt like tempting fate, and Jensen had no desire to act out any of _Supernatural_ 's gory effects in real life. He put his palm flat against the gap between the doors and rested his head against it, sighing. "We could be here a while. 911 said it might be two hours."

"I know. But we're okay, right?"

Jensen took a deep breath, and the almost overwhelming anxiety from earlier was just an undercurrent in his mind. He'd still be happy to get out of the elevator and the whole dark building, but he had light and air and Jeff; he was okay. "Yeah, we're good."

"And you're going to be even better when you see what else I brought." Jeff picked up something from the floor next to him and held the end of it as he pushed it through the gap.

Jensen reached in far enough to catch the other end of it and pull it through--a flask. "Yeah, okay, you're a genius." Jensen opened it and took a sip then closed his eyes as the whiskey smoothed over some of anxiety still jangling around in his body. Then he screwed the top back on. "Too bad I'm going to have to drive home once they get me out of here."

"I think you can leave your car in the parking deck overnight, don't you? I want you on the seat next to me not in a whole separate vehicle." Jeff pulled out a thermos of coffee and poured some for himself.

"Yeah, I'm good with that plan." Jensen took a second, longer pull from the flask then leaned against the door in relief.

By the time the rescue workers arrived, startling Jensen and Jeff with the pounding of their footsteps, Jensen was more concerned about getting out of the elevator to save his bladder than his sanity. In order for the workers to do their thing they had to pull the phone books out from between the doors, and Jensen felt his stomach drop when the doors closed with a heavy thud.

But it was different, knowing that Jeff was out there, along with a couple of guys in overalls who were making noise with their equipment. A few minutes later, Jensen was in the hallway giving Jeff a quick, one-armed hug. He felt stupid, that he couldn't let himself hold onto Jeff and let himself be held back in front of two random, disinterested men, but he just couldn't. He borrowed a lantern from Jeff and ducked into the restroom to take a leak and splash water on his face, and then the four of them trooped down the stairs and outside.

Thanks to the long days of summer, it was still dusk outside, and Jensen was glad that they didn't have to walk around in the full dark with no streetlights. There were plenty of cars on the street, but the unlit buildings and storefronts gave Jensen a chill. Jeff put a hand on his back, and as soon as they got inside the truck he was in Jeff's arms, surrounded by his warmth and strength and presence. His head spun from relief and whiskey and lingering traces of fear as he breathed in the clean smell of Jeff's neck and then tasted the coffee on his tongue.

When they eventually disentangled and started on their way home, the truck's headlights illuminating the strange city darkness, Jensen stretched his arm out over the top of the bench seat and brushed his fingers over the back of Jeff's neck. "You know, this whole thing would've been a lot more fun if you'd been in the elevator _with_ me."

Jeff laughed, warm and low in his throat. "We'll have to arrange that for the next blackout."

Jensen closed his eyes and listened to the quiet music on the radio and the hum of the road under the truck's wheels. Jeff reached over and squeezed his high, and Jensen let himself drift off to sleep. Everything was okay. Everything was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> This story has a timestamp [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2158902/chapters/4719753).


End file.
